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A federal judge on Monday dismissed charges against a Russian company accused of funding the Kremlin's efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election, after federal prosecutors said the company has flaunted court rules and made the prosecution more trouble than it is worth.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich came hours after the Justice Department asked to drop the charges against Concord Management and Consulting.
"There is a substantial federal interest in defending American democratic institutions, exposing those who endeavor to criminally interfere with them, and holding them accountable, which is why this prosecution was properly commenced in the first place," the government said in a 9-page motion filed Monday. "In light of the defendant's conduct, however, its ephemeral presence and immunity to just punishment, the risk of exposure of law enforcement's tools and techniques and the post-indictment change in the proof available at trial, the balance of equities has shifted."
Part of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, a grand jury in February 2018 indicted Concord Management and Consulting, as well as 13 Russian nationals and two other companies in connection with Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential elections using social media troll farms and influence campaigns.
Concord Management was the only alleged conspirator to enter an appearance in court and vigorously contested the charges over the ensuing two years.
But prosecutors say Concord Management has never really participated in the prosecution, instead using court proceedings to collect information about how the U.S. government responds to and monitors efforts from foreign countries to interfere in its elections.
(Score: 4, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday March 17 2020, @03:48PM (7 children)
Better translation:
Federal prosecutors, working for the corrupt William Barr, don't want to remind people Trump only won with the illegal help of a hostile foreign government.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 17 2020, @03:51PM (1 child)
Yeah. All those career workers are so pro-trump, they would never lie in order to trigger FISA court surveillance or participate in other constitution shredding acts. /sarc
(Score: 4, Informative) by Aegis on Tuesday March 17 2020, @08:07PM
Yes, because all the ethical DOJ prosecutors are gone now.
Every prosecutor on Roger Stone case quits in protest after DOJ lightens sentencing recommendation [msnbc.com]
Another example of William Barr totally not corrupting justice!
(Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 17 2020, @04:30PM
:-) Really, man! There's just no way Hillary could have lost, right? I mean, she was sooo popular! If it weren't for the Russians, she would have won 80% of the vote...
Them Russians is real smart!
-----
Ok, you fished me in... Who are you really poking at?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by shortscreen on Tuesday March 17 2020, @05:56PM
Because it was Russia that gave us two of the worst, least popular candidates in recent history, and also convinced 95% of voters that they HAD to pick one of them. Oh wait, it was our own corporate media that did that, like they do every time.
BTW, you should see my new bumper sticker. It says
"Four Years of Whinin'...
and All You've Got is Biden!?"
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 17 2020, @06:03PM (2 children)
The main evidence against the "Russians" was about 470 social media accounts and around $100k in advertising - about $33 per ad. In the 2016 election a total of around $6,800,000,000 [cbsnews.com] was spent trying to influence people using extensive databases on voter information, behavior, and trends - and decades of experience doing exactly that. So the "Russian Conspiracy" works out to a 0.001% share all spread about a random smattering of topics.
I find it inconceivable for anybody to genuinely believe that those accounts had any meaningful role whatsoever. The whole conspiracy theory seemed dubious from the onset because of these simple numbers issues. I think the only reason "we" bought into it was because people were looking for any excuse for how Trump could have been elected. People have become so polarized, they literally cannot even imagine how some would see Trump as more favorable than Clinton, or vice versa for those on the other side. When people start to lose their grounding to reality, they become easy to manipulate.
(Score: 2) by corey on Wednesday March 18 2020, @01:05AM (1 child)
Can you provide citations on those figures?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 18 2020, @03:47PM
I think most of the reporting on Russigate has been, at best, abysmal so I'll let you pick a source. To find information duckduckgo for "russia $100000 470 accounts", quotes excluded. You'll get about a million hits.